American West and Industrialization

Part 1: Immigration
Immigration from 1850-1930
In the late 1800s, the United States
experienced a great increase in
immigration.
Most immigrants came to the U.S. via the
Northeast, and many settled in cities
like Boston, New York, and Chicago.
Because of this rapid increase in population
coupled with a lack of space for
housing, low income slums began to
pop up in country's large cities.
In these slums, the poor lived in run down,
overcrowded buildings known as
tenements. Some people, like Jane
Addams and Jacob Riis, called for
social reforms in the living and working
conditions of the poor.
 Immigration
In the late 1800s, the United States
experienced a huge increase in
immigration, particularly to areas of the
Northeast and California.
Before the 1800s, most of the immigrants
were from Western European nations,
including Great Britain, Ireland, and
Germany, among others.
Immigrants from these regions became
known as "old immigrants" as a surge of
"new immigrants" flooded into the
country from other areas of the world.
These "new immigrants" came to the U.S.
in the late 1800s and were mostly from
areas in Eastern and Southern Europe,
especially Italy, Poland, and Russia.
The "new immigrants" settled into ethnic
neighborhoods in large cities like
Boston, New York, and Chicago.
Nativism
Some Americans did not
welcome immigrants and
feared competition for jobs.
These Americans were known as
nativists.
They were mostly Protestants
with British heritage.
Along with mistrusting immigrants
in general, nativists also
disliked Catholics because
they feared that Catholics
would feel more loyalty to the
pope and their religion than to
the United States.
 Chinese Exclusion Act
Lawmakers became increasingly
concerned with the number of
immigrants coming to the United States
in the late 1800s.
In 1882, Congress passed the first piece of
legislation that reduced immigration
from a specific country.
This was the Chinese Exclusion Act, and
it prohibited Chinese workers from
immigrating to the United States for ten
years.
Since most of the Chinese immigrants were
coming to the United States for job
opportunities, this act kept nearly all
Chinese immigrants from coming to the
United States.
Many Chinese immigrants had worked on
the construction of the Central Pacific
Railroad.
Ellis Island
In 1892, Ellis Island began to serve as
the chief immigration station of the
United States.
Nearly all immigrants who came across
the Atlantic Ocean stopped at Ellis
Island before continuing on to the
mainland.
About 40% of all Americans had an
ancestor come to the United States
through Ellis Island.
There, each immigrant was given identity
papers, checked for infections, and
sent to the mainland of the United
States through New York City.
Many immigrants stayed in New York
City, settling in ethnic neighborhoods.
 Japan
The "Gentlemen's
Agreement" of 1907 was
an informal agreement
between the United
States and Japan in
which the U.S. agreed
not to pass laws
excluding Japanese
immigration as long as
Japan prevented its
citizens from emigrating.
Quota System
In the years following World War I, there was a
great deal of anti-immigrant sentiment, and
the federal government passed various laws
restricting immigration.
With the Immigration Act of 1924, a quota
system was enacted in which no more than 2
percent of the population of each nationality
that was living in the U.S. in 1890 could be
admitted as immigrants.
This law eliminated immigration from Asia and
severely limited immigration from Southern
and Eastern Europe, particularly Russia and
Italy.
In the Sacco and Vanzetti trial of 1921, Italian
immigrants Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo
Vanzetti were convicted of murder.
Many people felt that the men had not received a
fair trial because of the anti-immigrant and
anti-radical ideals of the era.
 Cities and Living Conditions
With the influx of immigrants to the United
States, cities grew rapidly, especially in
the Northeast.
Urbanization, which is the act of making a
place into an urban area, was on the rise.
Many cities could not keep up with the
quickly increasing populations.
Immigrants and the poor moved into
tenement houses, also known as
dumbbell tenements.
Tenements were overcrowded and lacked
the necessary sanitation and ventilation.
Families often lived all in one room and
sometimes shared a room with another
family.
These areas began to be known as the
slums.
Settlement Houses
In an effort to help people living in
tenements in the slums, some people
began to set up settlement houses.
A settlement house was a neighborhood
institution where trained workers tried
to improve social conditions by
providing community services and
promoting cooperation among
neighbors.
Jane Addams founded Hull House in
Chicago, one of the most famous
settlement houses in the United
States.
Hull House served as a community
center for the neighborhood and later
was a center for social reform
activities.
 Jacob Riis
Jacob Riis tried in his own way to bring
attention to the immigrants and poor
who lived in the tenements and
slums.
Riis published a book called How the
Other Half Lives: Studies Among the
Tenements of New York.
In the book, Riis used photographs,
drawings, and written descriptions to
advocate better living and working
conditions for the urban poor.
His book included images of child labor,
sweatshops, and overcrowded and
unsanitary tenements in an effort to
bring about social reform.